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Explodeathon 2

NOTE: All of this is tentative. Some ideas may be changed, or not even added at all. If you like/dislike an idea, post a comment below explaining why. Thank you!

What is Explodeathon 2?

The Original Plan

The original plan was to make a huge update for Explodeathon Battlegrounds. The game is good, but it needs something... Actually, not just "something". It need a lot more than just "something". It lacks upgrades, any sort of micro, balance, and much more. So I was going to put all of this "something" into a massive update.

What Has Changed

Well as you can see, the title of this page is "Explodeathon 2". I am making the update into an entirely new game. It is THAT different. It is THAT much better.

What is Being Added?

There is so much being added into Explodeathon 2. I will go through each aspect of the game, and narrow down into the finest detail of what I am doing to make the game more fun, more enjoyable, and just overall better.

Terrain

Explodeathon 2 is getting an entirely new terrain.

Issues With the Old Terrain

The terrain for Explodeathon Battlegrounds is more than boring. The stuff that is worth looking at is off in the fog of war, where you are never going to look anyways. Even that is sub-par at best. In Explodeathon 2, the terrain is being completely redone.

Screenshots

The terrain for Explodeathon 2 is going to be the same style as my other work-in-progress map. To give you a preview, I have posted links to screenshots of that terrain below.

Visuals

What Do You Mean by "Visuals"?

I'm talking about everything from Spawner models to death animations to ExploDepots. Almost everything is getting a rework.

What, Exactly?

Well, a lot of it is a surprise! But I'll give you some basic examples. (All are tentative, so don't get too attached to one of them!)

  • Instead of a Nexus, the Headquarters is going to be... well... not even a building. It's going to be an ancient protoss sorcerer (no, not a High Templar) that is constantly channeling energy. That energy is being fed into a light bridge, which is going to be your lane! Cool, eh?
  • Spawners will no longer be buildings. Instead, they will be beacons with an uncontrollable model of the unit they spawn on top of it. Flying units will be slowly lowered to the beacon. As a result, the Spawners look cleaner, and the reset looks cleaner as well.
  • The fire at the end of each lane. Yikes doesthat look forced. Well, that was because it is forced. At the bottom end of each lane, on a large pedestal, will be another channeling Protoss Sorcerer. When a unit approaches the end of the lane, he will recycle their essence. At the end of the rotation, the recycled essence will be converted into minerals (Sound familiar? Yes, it is replacing the vespene system. It will function in the same way) He will also be in charge of destroying all Spawners and Units with the reset.
  • Skins. Particularly your builders will have skins you can unlock by PLAYING the game. You don't need to win, just play. More advanced skins will require wins, however.
  • And much, much more!

Mechanics

Okay, now for the important part. What is being added into the game, in terms of mechanics? What is being changed? Removed?

Unit Type Research

If you have played Explodeathon Battlegrounds, I am sure you are familiar with Creepers, Zipplings, Demons, Iron Men, etc. These are all built separately in Explodeathon Battlegrounds. However, in Explodeathon 2, they are not.

Instead, each basic Spawner (Stalker, Zealot, Marauder, Zergling, etc etc) will have a research upgrade. This upgrade applies ONLY to the Spawner that researches it. When researched, the Spawner that researched the upgrade will spawn the upgraded form of that unit. Stalker Spawners will instead spawn Creepers. Zergling Spawners will spawn Zipplings. Etc etc.

Once a Spawner has researched this upgrade, it can swap back and forth between the upgraded form and the original at no cost.

Individualized Research

Each Spawner has a set of upgrades they can research. Damage, Attack Speed, Health, Armor, etc etc. These upgrades apply only to the Spawner that researched them.

Spawn Count Upgrade

Each Spawner will initially spawn 1 unit. The Spawner can then research the ability to spawn additional units. The smallest units (Zergling, Zippling, etc) have a max of 6. The largest units (Colossus, Thor, Ultralisk, etc) have a max of 1. Units in between will have a cap of somewhere in between.

Note that Individualized Research upgrades apply to all units that a Spawner spawns, so it is a good idea to max out a Spawner's spawning capacity before researching a Individualized Research upgrade.

Mineral Processing Plant Rework

Mineral Processing Plants are getting a rework. In Explodeathon Battlegrounds, to increase your income, you build a Mineral Processing Plant. In Explodeathon 2, that is not the case.

There is only 1 Mineral Processing Plant per player, and each player starts with 1. Unlike Explodeathon Battlegrounds, in Explodeathon 2, the Mineral Processing Plant is located outside your Building Area, and is much larger.

The function of the Mineral Processing Plant is the same. From the Mineral Processing Plant, you can research an upgrade that will increase your income level by 1. This has the exact same functionality as building an additional Mineral Processing Plant did in Explodeathon Battlegrounds.

From the Mineral Processing Plant you can also research other income/economy related upgrades.

Explo-Depots

Or lack of, rather. Instead of Explo-Depots (as seen in Explodeathon Battlegrounds), each sorcerer will be equipped with an "Overload" ability. This will cause a massive wave of psionic energy to shoot down your lane, destroying all enemy units it comes in contact with. This will be much easier to use, and will be much more visually appealing.

Mercenaries

Mercenaries are units that only spawn once. They are much more powerful than regular units, and cost much more. Mercenaries will spawn with your next wave.

Sorry, No Heroes

Explodeathon 2 is already a high APM game, and requires a lot of focus. Adding in a hero that you have to micro would be difficult to the point of not being fun.

Team Mode

There will be 2 game modes for Explodeathon 2 you can choose from: FFA or Team Mode. Team Mode utilizes a second Building Area located immediately above the first.

In Team Mode, you will have an ally that spawns in that second Building Area. There are 2 different Spawning Mode available once a Team Mode game is started: Classic and Incremental.

  • Classic Mode: Classic Mode will be the default. One teammate will spawn as the Attacking Army, while the other teammate will spawn as the Defending Army. Ever wave you rotate with your teammate who spawns where. Rotations work the same way as they always have.
  • Incremental Mode: Your army will spawn every other wave as both your team's Attacking and Defending Army. When your army is not spawning, your teammate's is.

There are an odd number of spawns. On the last spawn, regardless of what mode you are playing, both your army and your ally's army will spawn for both your Attacking and Defending Armies. This wave does not have a time limit. The armies will fight until there is a victor, at which point those units will be removed (warped out by one of the sorcerers) from combat. If your Defending Army is victorious, you are awarded bonus minerals in the next rotation. If your Attacking Army is victorious, your reward is that your enemy does not receive a mineral bonus.

Note that it is possible that instead of a mineral bonus, winning that battle will increase your Essence (previously Vespene) ratio slightly.

Note that no matter what mode you play, Explodeathon 2 will always be leaver-friendly. If someone leaves, that does not put you at a disadvantage.

General Unit Upgrades

Units will have their own unique upgrades. Some will be abilities, such as the Raven's Seeker Missile and the Ghost's EMP. Others will be stats, such as the Hydralisk +1 range upgrade. I will be adding in MANY custom unit upgrades.

Unlike the Individualized Upgrades, these upgrades apply to all Spawners of that type. However, the upgrade is reset upon rotation.

Builders

This is the most iffy thing on this entire list. I don't know how I am going to do this, or even what I'm doing. However, what I DO know, is that it is highly unlikely that the builders will be split up into 3 races. I might do it by tier. I might to it by race, AND tier. I honestly have no idea.

Another thing that I DO know: You will have 1 builder, and that builder will have to research upgrades in order to build different types of units. I just don't know how units are going to be sorted.

New Units and New Abilities

There are going to be A TON of units added to Explodeathon 2. I expect 10-15 units at minimum, per race. That's 30-45 new units in total, if you were wondering. That number includes both existing units that simply haven't been added to the game (Ghost, Science Vessel, Mothership, etc), as well as totally new units.

New units will be almost entirely upgrades for existing units. Examples are Creepers and Zipplings.

Note: Once the game has gone through beta testing, has been released, and is pretty much good to go, I will add a HoTS version. This will have even MORE new units. Also, units that are the same model as other units (Hydron) will be changed to use HoTS models.

Many existing units are getting abilities added, both existing and custom. For example, the Observer and Overseer are both getting custom abilities.

Neutral Waves

This is also very tentative. I really like this idea, although how I implement it is likely to change.

At the beginning of the game, players vote on whether "Neutral Wave" mode is on or off. If on is selected, each player then gets to choose the difficulty of their neutral waves spawns.

Boss Wave

Each rotation has an odd number of waves. 7, to be exact. On the seventh rotation, only your Defending Army will spawn, but it will spawn double of everything. If you are playing Team Mode, both yours and your ally's army will spawn as your Defending Army. A neutral "boss" will spawn at the bottom of each lane in replace of an Attacking Army.

The boss will not advance to your Headquarters as a normal army would. In fact, it will remain perfectly stationary throughout the battle. The boss will have 5-10 abilities, depending on which wave it is. (Each wave will enable new abilities, and make the boss stronger) The abilities might push units away, draw them near, disable abilities, root them in place, etc. These abilities will have programmed AI to be used as effectively as they can be. So be careful.

The boss has no basic attack, but will periodically spawn minions. These units can move a limited distance away from the boss, and will fight your army. (A leash, so to speak) These units will basically be a mini-army. They will spawn in formation, with tanks in the front, DPS in the back, etc etc.

When the boss spawns, it will spawn with 2 Spine Crawlers in front of it, and 2 Spore Crawlers (with increase range) next to it. The boss will be Zerg based, if you haven't figured that out. These 4 structures MUST be destroyed before the boss can be attacked. Before they are, the boss is invulnerable.

Defeating the boss will award you with a large mineral bonus for the next rotation.

Note: A good strategy is to save up your minerals and spawn a couple of mercenaries on the boss wave. Any additional Spawners you make will only spawn once, anyways.

Random Neutral Wave

Occasionally a neutral wave will spawn as all Attacking Armies. This will pause all timers, and will not count as one of the 7 waves.

The size of the army will be dependent on the difficulty level you chose at the beginning of the game. (This difficulty level can be changed in your Mineral Processing Plant) Your defending army will fight the neutral army as it normally would. If you win, one of 3 things will happen (I don't know which yet). The amounts of any of these would be proportionate to the size of the army you killed.

  • 1, your income level will permanently increase.
  • 2, your income level will increase for the next wave.
  • 3, you will be awarded minerals.

The faction of the army that is spawned is random, as well as the contents of the army that is spawned. However, the army will strategically place its units, and each unit will strategically target your units.

The Advanced Targeting System

This gets its own section. It is that important. It is THAT big. Click Here for an entire page devoted to explaining the details of the Advanced Targeting System.

The Advanced Targeting System allows you to control how each of your Spawners prioritizes enemies. It is extremely powerful.

When you select a Spawner, 3 pulldowns appear in the command card. The first is a list of the unit's abilities. The second is a list of the available Targeting System Profiles. The last is a list of Sorting Systems. Below that are a set of Toggle Buttons that allow you even more control over how the Targeting System selects units.

Targeting System Profiles

The link above goes into much more detail, but here are the basics. A Targeting System Profile consists of a list of Validators. Each Validator will filter out certain units.

For example, a Validator might target units with 1 armor. Or it might target units that have health closest to 300. Or it might target light units. Or it might target AA flyers, or AG flyers. The Profile then holds a list of those Validators.

Targeting System Sorting

Once a Profile is selected, you can select how the Targeting System uses the Validators in that Profile to find a target for the selected ability.

Examples are Hunter, Linear Profiling, and Distance. More information is in the link above.

And More

I don't want to post everything that I am adding into the game on this page. At least not yet. Stay tuned as I update this page, and finally release Explodeathon 2!

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